Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The IndyStar.com reports a shooting took place Monday night in Georgetown Indiana after a woman called the Sheriff's office for what seemed to be a domestic disturbance with her son.

At this point, authorities have no motive for the shooting. "The teen, Tyler Dumstorf, had shot the deputies Monday evening and was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot early Tuesday inside the home about 13 miles outside Louisville, Ky., authorities said. Dumstorf used the M1 Garand in the shooting, prosecutor Keith Henderson said. He said the boy's father bought the gun some time ago and that he and his son shot it during target practice. The gun is a showpiece, and possessing one is not illegal, the prosecutor said. 'The cause of yesterday's tragedy isn't the weapon. It's the person who fired it,' he said."

Amazing statement of fact from the prosecutor! The gun wasn't the criminal, the shooter was. We don't know why the teen did what he did, but we do know that the gun didn't make him do it. It's always hard to read that someone thought shooting someone was a rational choice, but it was his choice and his alone. Because Tyler was a minor, we'll never know what led to his decision to pull the trigger. We can only speculate.

This story illustrates another fact. The Garand is a perfectly legal rifle. Unfortunately, the prosecutor had to indicate that the rifle was indeed something that a citizen can possess, though he said the rifle was considered a "showpiece." We can see by the original Associated Press headline for the story that they wanted to insinuate some evil with the weapon. The Enemy Press AP headline reads "Officials: Teen used WWII-era rifle," as if its status as a military weapon made the crime more heinous. Another example of how the Enemy Press tries to demonize those who use the guns, and the guns themselves.

Acts such as these are unfortunate, but what's worse is the knowledge that those who hate your right to possess guns will use these tragedies to further their agenda of limiting freedom. As long as people are willing to kill, there will always be gun violence. Sadly, those who don't care about maintaining liberties will just follow along with the crowd and let those with sinister motives continue to attempt to restrict, and then ban your right to own weapons for self defense and to resist tyranny.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

PilotOnline.com reports an Enemy Press AP story about a gun under a pillow that "went off" and severely injured an off duty police woman.

"Albany police Sgt. Kinshishi Adams, 34, was lying in bed Sunday when a .40 caliber pistol she kept under her pillow discharged and struck her in her left wrist, Dougherty County Police Chief Don Cheek said." Oh, that foul gun! Imagine the horror the officer felt when the gun raised itself from under the pillow and shot her!

Lest you think it's just the press that misunderstands negligent discharge, the police spokesmen obviously misunderstand it as well. "Both Cheek and Albany police stressed the importance of gun safety in the wake of the accident. 'We train on gun safety and we stress gun safety, but even the people who handle guns for a living, accidents happen,' Cheek said. 'We just stress that firearms are not toys, and even people experienced with firearms occasionally have accidents.'"

For the record for those inexperienced with guns: a gun will not generally "go off" on its own. You must pull the trigger. Now of course the story is incomplete, as it doesn't indicate how the gun was fired. It could have fallen on the floor from the bed, but unless the gun is not on safe and the hammer is back on it, most guns will not fire if dropped from a small distance. Please note, I said most. As the gun was a .40, we can assume it was a semi-auto. That means the gun must have had a round in the chamber with the hammer back, ready to fire. If the gun didn't fall off the bed, the officer pulled the trigger. That's not an "accident," that's negligence.

No one should really expect layers of professional fact checkers and editors to understand this fact, but you would expect professional law enforcement to understand. Then again, maybe not.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

About Me

This site's comment policy:
As I believe in the Constitution and freedom, commenters are allowed to post regardless of their political or social views. Even Europeans!
Keep your comments on topic.
That doesn't mean that any silly comments without some idea of backup won't be moderated to make the poster look foolish.
ScottG